The Heart of the Matter
by thewordsthatweareneeding
Summary: Petra won't speak to Auruo and nobody knows why, but they're all tired of watching her face darken with hurt every time she sees him. Erd decides it's time to get down to the heart of the matter. (Levi/Petra, can be read as implied/one-sided Auruo/Petra)


**AN: Levi/Petra, with hints of one-sided Auruo/Petra if you're looking to interpret it that way. This is my first real snk fic so wowow this is scary. Thanks for reading!**

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"Shut up!"

All eyes turned from their food to look at Petra, who stood with balled fists and burning red cheeks over a stunned looking Auruo. The table between them was dripping with spilled soup, an overturned bowl still dully spinning to a stop.

The small girl looked around briefly at the faces turned towards her before inclining her head down and storming away.

"What did you say to her?" someone called over to Auruo.

The man shrugged, too quickly and too defensively for the gesture to be honest, and threw his hands up in forced defeat. "I dunno."

No one thought much of the ordeal. Auruo offended someone nearly every other day, and Petra was frequently a victim, if only because she put up with the bumbling man more often than most. But when two days had passed and Petra's face still darkened every time he entered the room, eyebrows started to raise. At a week without her speaking to him, the team grew concerned.

"Did you apologize?" Erd prodded.

"I told you, I didn't say anything that bad. It's probably not even me she's mad at."

"Do you remember what you said?"

Auruo let out a sharp breath through his nose. "Nothing important."

When prying Auruo proved unsuccessful, the team turned to Petra. It would have been easier if she were acting differently towards everyone, or if she at least appeared thrown off somehow. But she was the usual Petra, gentle and kind and quick to smile. Gunter's probing looks only left her asking him if he was okay instead of vice versa. Erd's attempt to pull her aside and question her was even less successful, and any other efforts from members of the scouting legion were undeserving of mention.

Erd tried, half-heartedly, to stir Levi into involvement. "Captain," he said, "We're worried about Petra."

"Has she been injured?" Levi asked.

"No."

"Is she behaving differently?"

"No."

"What's the problem?"

Erd heaved a sigh. "She won't speak to Auruo."

Levi's mouth curled into something between a grimace and a sneer. "Petra and Auruo can work it out themselves."

Erd considered taking that as advice and forcing Auruo and Petra alone together, but immediately thought better of it. A plan like that was more likely to upset Petra more than solve anything. He was ready to give up entirely and wait for the matter to blow over when he heard muffled voices from the corridor. Following the noise, he came across Petra, rocking forward on the tips of her toes to look Auruo in the eye as best as she could, her finger jabbing into his chest and the tip of her nose pink with shouting.

"I don't want to speak to you!" she said.

"Petra, if this is about what I said-"

"Of course it's about what you said!"

"I don't understand why you're so upset about-"

"No," she seethed. "You never try to understand why I'm upset. You make me so angry and then you blame me for it, and you make me feel stupid for feeling the way I do."

Auruo blinked. His face was set in an expressionless mask, then slid into a scowl.

"So you did say something to her," Erd stepped forward. "Auruo, what the hell did you do?"

The older man's shoulders slunk lower. He took a step back, away from Petra and turned his head to look Erd in the eye. The curve of his mouth was jagged and wild, like a petulant child, and it should have set off warning bells immediately, but Erd didn't even think to speak up before Auruo spat out, "All I said was that she doesn't hide her schoolgirl crush on Captain Levi very well, and suddenly everyone's upset."

Petra gasped audibly. Her posture slumped under the weight of her outrage. Her slender frame trembled and her hair fell to cast a shadow over her face. A look akin to shame passed over Auruo's face as he looked at her, but any apology he might have made died in his throat.

"I am not a child," her voice came in a sharp, almost-whisper. "You don't get to treat me or my feelings like they're juvenile. And you shouldn't talk about me or Captain Levi so disrespectfully!"

A silence fell over the three soldiers, interrupted only by the sound of slow, deliberate footsteps from behind Erd. The man had been so distracted by the scene that it hadn't occurred to him he hadn't closed the door until Levi was already in the doorway, leaning against the frame.

"This is what all the commotion's been about?" he drawled.

Petra's head snapped up immediately and her wide eyes focused on the man in the doorway. Her face, already flushed from anger, softened to an embarrassed, stinging pink.

"Petra, can I speak to you privately?" the Captain said, already retreating into the room he'd come from.

"Y-Yes, Captain."

The girl drew all the confidence she could muster into the lines of her body as she straightened and followed her commanding officer, sparing only a moment to shoot a furious glare at Auruo. After crossing the threshold, she shut the door slowly and firmly, ignoring Erd's dumbfounded look. Petra exhaled heavily before taking a deep breath for courage and turning to face Levi.

Levi stood silently, watching her from a few feet away. She waited for him to speak, but nothing in his countenance gave any indication that he intended to say anything. Each passing second brought more color to her cheeks and added to the nervous heat building in the pit of her stomach. When she could not take it, she spoke again.

"You don't get to call it a schoolgirl crush either," she said. "Of everyone here, you're the only one who's never treated me like a child. You're the only one who's always taken me seriously. Please don't change that."

She ducked her head as she spoke so that she wouldn't have to see his stoic face. She tried not to think about what he might be thinking; she told herself it didn't matter if he knew, that maybe he'd always known and just never said anything. Rejection, discomfort, even annoyance she could take in stride. She could handle anything from him as long as he didn't laugh at her.

"Petra," he said.

She would not look up. "Please, Captain."

Petra hadn't noticed him move forward until she felt the heat of his body hovering a hair's breadth away from hers. His hand found her chin and tilted her face up to look him in the eye. Even then, she could barely stand to see him.

She did not have to look at him long, however, as his next move brought him even closer. His lips met hers roughly, clumsy and deliberate all at once.

"Auruo's an idiot," was all he said when he pulled away.

The nervous pit of Petra's stomach dissolved into something light and fluttering. She could feel happiness pushing at the walls of her chest, and suddenly it wasn't hard to meet Levi's eyes anymore.

"Y-Yes, Captain," she said.

Even so, she did not think she would speak to Auruo for at least another week.


End file.
